Food Storage

This morning I cleared the last of the lettuce out of this bed. It will have melons seeded in here in a few days, but earlier it was the radish, turnip, and lettuce bed. When I clear out a bed like this I get lot of produce all at once. It is nicer to be able to harvest just for a couple of days as it keeps my fridge more manageable, but sometimes I need to store large quantities of produce.

I use two big tubs. I don't wash the produce when I store it like this. And I put a towel on the bottom. This keeps veggies that need to be stored for a long time from rotting (from sitting in condensation), but keeps them moist.

Today I was also pulling out the overwintered kale and picked off all of the kale blossoms. This is one of my medium sized plastic containers that I use for storage. This container also has a towel on the bottom. A long time ago I cut down some old kitchen towels to just fit the containers I have and I use them constantly.

My fridge is now packed with all sorts of containers. Not as packed as it sometimes gets. I gave a lot away to my townhouse mates and when harvesting really brings in too much, I'll be emailing the neighbors and trying to get rid of it. Then I bring out my cooler to store things in until I can get them to pick it up. Gardening always seems to leave me with either too much or to little of things. Or maybe I just don't notice the times when things are just right.

Now that you are peeking into my fridge, you can see what I keep in there. Some things are kind of weird. Like on the top left, you can see a jar with almonds and water in it. I make my own almond milk. I used the last of my milk this morning so I soak the almonds for a day before I make more. I make my own for a couple of reasons. The first is because I walk and bike to shop. Carrying almonds home is easier, especially if I'm walking. Carrying liquids home can be painful on the shoulders. The other is that you can't find plain almond milk. Mine is nothing but almonds and water, but the commercial varieties insist on putting all sorts of weird things in it. On the top right shelf and all the way to the back you will see my seed collection in an air tight container. Or at least most of my seed collection. Yes I waste fridge space to store my seeds. If I'm desperate for space I can always take them out, but my seeds are precious. To the left way behind the tea is a small batch of ginger wine. Norma taught me to preserve my ginger that way. And I love the sake flavored with ginger for cooking too.

And my favorite thing in the fridge is the lower box of eggs. The other boxes of eggs are nice enough for store bought eggs (the farmers markets don't start for another week around here - June 11th for the Arlington one). But those are lovely pastured eggs from one of my townhouse mates' friends. She owns a farm in New Hampshire. Her eggs are better than any I've found at the farmers market. Even if I had my own chickens they wouldn't be as good as I just don't have the land for them to eat that many natural things. Yum. My husband won't be home for dinner on Wednesday and I'm contemplating making Dave's wife's spinach pie for the first time, but I'll need to get to the store for cottage cheese. I hope it happens.